The Box Sconces are minimalist wall lights by the Brooklyn-based artist Isabel Rower. Part of her Box Works series, the sconces continue her exploration of translating familiar forms into ceramic objects that blur the boundaries between sculpture and function.

Each sconce echoes the form of discarded cardboard boxes, specifically, the packaging from clay orders used in both her and her mother’s studios. Rower used these boxes to make interior frameworks for her stoneware pieces, resulting in functional sconces whose surfaces retain folds, seams, and subtle creases reminiscent of their cardboard origins.

When illuminated, the Box Sconces emit a soft, diffused glow that enhances their tactile surfaces. Their box-like silhouettes retain the memory of their original function, yet their ceramic bodies and gentle radiance reframe them as warm, domestic fixtures rather than disposable containers. The visible folds, scored lines, and earthy tones nod to their paper beginnings while subverting viewers’ tactile expectations.

As with the rest of Box Works, the sconces connect to Rower’s larger practice of using everyday forms as a lens for exploring materiality. By abstracting overlooked objects into lasting works of ceramics, she, as Marta Gallery notes, “engages with a kind of trompe-l’œil: one that disguises furniture as sculpture (and vice versa).”